2 ms·

How many arrests does it take to chill free speech?

by nateabele 10mo ago

bawolff 10mo ago
How many were for politcal speech as opposed to say threatening to murder someone?
- reliabilityguy 10mo ago
  I would say even one is too many. The law was written in such a way intentionally to suppress speech. People who wrote it ain’t stupid.
  - xp84 10mo ago
    Indeed. The success of even one such prosecution means that the second someone in government wants someone out of the way, they can efficiently be imprisoned for anything rising to the level of... "offensive."
    - fao_ 10mo ago
      "offensive" actually has a relatively solid definition based on how judges have ruled on it in the past. This includes hate-mongering against protected characteristics, which I see a lot of from the USA right now.
      - reliabilityguy 10mo ago
        Can you share this definition of “offensive” you mentioned?
      - bufio 10mo ago
        You're loving this.
  - bawolff 10mo ago
    > I would say even one is too many. Well, is the number > 0?
- qcnguy 10mo ago
  Huge numbers are for political speech. It's not just prosecutions. Child protection is abused to force far left wing beliefs on the population. A former Marine was charged with inciting racial hatred after describing some migrants as “scumbags” and “psychopaths” in a 12-minute video posted on Facebook following the murders of three children in Southport, which sparked riots around the country. He was then banned from coaching his own daughter's football club. A jury cleared him in 17 minutes, but Wales is run by the left so they kept the coaching ban in place because they believe right wing people are a threat to children. In another case a teacher was banned from working with children after telling a Muslim child that "Britain is still a Christian state" There are lots of cases like this. Especially if you expand to Europe. The German Chancellor has personally prosecuted thousands of speech cases against people who insulted him. Merkel established a general rule against insulting politicians so now people get police visits and their devices confiscated for saying things like such and such a politician is a dumbass.
  - bawolff 10mo ago
    > He was then banned from coaching his own daughter's football club. A jury cleared him in 17 minutes, but Wales is run by the left so they kept the coaching ban in place because they believe right wing people are a threat to children. Who is the "they" in this? The football club? If the situation is essentially that he called certain groups scumbags, but the footbal club has members of that group, its not surprising he would be banned. Being rude gets you banned from things. I don't see a problem with that. He wasn't thrown in jail, he said something that offended some people and as a result they decided they didn't like him anymore. Freedom of association is also freedom to chose not to associate with people you don't like. > In another case a teacher was banned from working with children after telling a Muslim child that "Britain is still a Christian state" I mean, that sounds like a dick thing to say to a child or to anyone. And not particularly true (yes there are some vestiges with the church of england, but you are allowed to be any religion in england) Was that person prosecuted or just fired? > The German Chancellor has personally prosecuted thousands of speech cases against people who insulted him. I highly doubt it.
    - qcnguy 10mo ago

How many arrests does it take to chill free speech?

bawolff 10mo ago

How many were for politcal speech as opposed to say threatening to murder someone?

reliabilityguy 10mo ago
I would say even one is too many. The law was written in such a way intentionally to suppress speech. People who wrote it ain’t stupid.
- xp84 10mo ago
  Indeed. The success of even one such prosecution means that the second someone in government wants someone out of the way, they can efficiently be imprisoned for anything rising to the level of... "offensive."
  - fao_ 10mo ago
    "offensive" actually has a relatively solid definition based on how judges have ruled on it in the past. This includes hate-mongering against protected characteristics, which I see a lot of from the USA right now.
    - reliabilityguy 10mo ago
      Can you share this definition of “offensive” you mentioned?
    - bufio 10mo ago
      You're loving this.
- bawolff 10mo ago
  > I would say even one is too many. Well, is the number > 0?
qcnguy 10mo ago
Huge numbers are for political speech. It's not just prosecutions. Child protection is abused to force far left wing beliefs on the population. A former Marine was charged with inciting racial hatred after describing some migrants as “scumbags” and “psychopaths” in a 12-minute video posted on Facebook following the murders of three children in Southport, which sparked riots around the country. He was then banned from coaching his own daughter's football club. A jury cleared him in 17 minutes, but Wales is run by the left so they kept the coaching ban in place because they believe right wing people are a threat to children. In another case a teacher was banned from working with children after telling a Muslim child that "Britain is still a Christian state" There are lots of cases like this. Especially if you expand to Europe. The German Chancellor has personally prosecuted thousands of speech cases against people who insulted him. Merkel established a general rule against insulting politicians so now people get police visits and their devices confiscated for saying things like such and such a politician is a dumbass.
- bawolff 10mo ago
  > He was then banned from coaching his own daughter's football club. A jury cleared him in 17 minutes, but Wales is run by the left so they kept the coaching ban in place because they believe right wing people are a threat to children. Who is the "they" in this? The football club? If the situation is essentially that he called certain groups scumbags, but the footbal club has members of that group, its not surprising he would be banned. Being rude gets you banned from things. I don't see a problem with that. He wasn't thrown in jail, he said something that offended some people and as a result they decided they didn't like him anymore. Freedom of association is also freedom to chose not to associate with people you don't like. > In another case a teacher was banned from working with children after telling a Muslim child that "Britain is still a Christian state" I mean, that sounds like a dick thing to say to a child or to anyone. And not particularly true (yes there are some vestiges with the church of england, but you are allowed to be any religion in england) Was that person prosecuted or just fired? > The German Chancellor has personally prosecuted thousands of speech cases against people who insulted him. I highly doubt it.
  - qcnguy 10mo ago